Teachers, students in JNU protest

Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Jan. 17: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) today announced a lecture series, a mode of protest adopted when students were arrested on sedition charges last year, a day after five teachers were warned against addressing gatherings near the administrative block.

The JNUTA has called a strike on January 17 and the students' union too has announced a similar two-day protest from tomorrow against the alleged "witch hunt" of dissenting students and teachers by vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar and the "dilution" of the university's affirmative action in academic and executive council meetings.

Nine students suspended for disrupting the academic council meeting were today allowed to provisionally register for the semester.

"JNUTA announces the organising of public lectures on the theme, 'Democratising Social Justice', from 18th January to 25th January 2017 to give a clear message that teachers of JNU would not be cowed down by threats and intimidation," the teachers' association said in a statement.

JNU student union president Mohit Pandey said: "It is sad that the ABVP supporters who hit (missing student) Najeeb (Ahmed) and made him vanish are still roaming free. The VC is repeatedly attacking everything JNU stands for."